Willpower, Work Ethic, and Wearable Wellness with Cedar Carter, CEO of The Good Patch

Description:In this episode, Lee sits down with Cedar Carter, CEO of The Good Patch, a pioneering “wearable wellness” company offering plant-infused patches that deliver sustained relief for a variety of everyday ailments. Cedar shares her 20 years of collective experience across the apparel and wellness industries, from her first internship with Donna Karen in The Big Apple to her time at BCBG Max Azria, Roxy, and O’Neil. She also talks about her passion for wellness, her leadership style, her first fundraising experience, the importance of hard work, and why “big picture thinking” has been key to her success as well as why highly creative people don’t always make the best CEOs and more!Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:• AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats.In This Episode You’ll Hear About:•   [02:26] Cedar’s rustic upbringing and the leadership qualities she displayed early on.•   [05:23] An overview of Cedar’s career journey, from gymnastics coach to CEO.•   [16:03] The importance of thinking about the big picture and taking a long-term approach.•   [19:13] What prompted Cedar to make the move from apparel to CPG at The Good Patch.•   [22:09] The story of how she became CEO of The Good Patch in under a year.•   [27:58] How her expectations of what it means to be CEO have been challenged.•   [29:47] Things that have influenced Cedar’s empowering leadership style along the way.•   [33:47] What growth looks like at The Good Patch (and some insight into the product).•   [38:23] Inspiring lessons from Cedar’s first fundraising experience.•   [44:44] What’s next for The Good Patch and Cedar’s advice for aspiring leaders.To Find Out More:The Good PatchCedar Carter on LinkedInThe Artemis FundLee Greene on LinkedInStairway to CEOStairway to CEO on InstagramAwesome CXQuotes:“We were very close to nature [as children] and it grounded me from the start.” [0:03:00]“Coaching gymnastics was a very simple job, but it led to many other career opportunities along the way for me. The value of networking!”  [0:06:03]“It’s important to work hard in any job that you have, regardless of how important or unimportant it seems at the time because you learn something from every experience, but also, you never know who you’ll meet along the way.” [0:07:01]“When you’re young, it’s hard to know what you want to do until you try it.” [0:12:07]“As a marketer, I’d always had an eye on the big picture, as you should.” [0:16:04]“Because I knew how the wholesale, retail, apparel worlds worked so intimately and also knew how to build and scale a D2C business, The Good Patch approached me thinking that my background made sense for them.” [0:19:58]“A lot of founders are very creative. They have this amazing out-of-the-box idea, then it comes to actually operating a business, and that’s not always that fun!” [0:25:23]“The CEO role is a lot of pressure. That’s the biggest thing [that I didn’t expect or realize]. I’d always been working for somebody else. While I still work for somebody else, it is ultimat